Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Some Bullshit

Tim at Bullshit Memorial Stadium had a great quote on his site:

Let the Yankees have this one. We win the important games- in October

We've all heard Yankee fans say this whenever we won the early series in April and May and we've never really had a response to it. Now we do, which is awsome.

For those of you who don't know, Boston Dirt Dogs is perhaps the most well-known of the Red Sox blogs. It is so well-known that the Boston Globe sponsors it. I've posted on stuff like this on my previous blog but I'll talk about it again. People need to realize that their blogs are not media outlets. If you want to be a media outlet, you have to be serious and unbiased, or at least attempt to be. Blogs are a way of expressing opinions. No-one goes to my site looking for how the Red Sox did. They can go to a real media outlet's site for that. People want to read my opinions on the Sox. I don't know why but seemingly some people do. Anyway, here's the story.

Here's the latest Dirt Dogs story to be completely made-up: Nomar doesn't want World Series ring. It's a typical Dirt Dogs article. A funny headline with a large picture. The "article" itself is ridiculous. First of all, the Mesa, AZ part is not accurate because the story wasn't filed in Arizona, it was filed wherever the Dirt Dogs are. That part is supposed to make it look like a real newspaper article. This "Jessica" isn't a correspondant. She apparently e-mailed the Dirt Dogs. Now, I don't get too many e-mails with suggestions for the site but I often get e-mails about dirty secretaries who want to sleep with me tonight. Do I post that crap? No, because it isn't true and if it is, I can't verify it. The Dirt Dogs go on to say they were the lone internet voice of support for the Nomar trade. WOW! Now, I wasn't posting when the trade went down, but I did support the trade, very much. My first post since the trade went like this:

The Sox are rolling though. They're 24-8 without Nomar. I think the deals made really gave this team a winning character.

My archives

Boston Sports Media Watch has an article on the whole affair. Here's the link. A key paragraph is this one:

BSMW has learned in the last 24 hours that the original email was a hoax, and that the warning came from the same person who sent the original email. It was done on purpose by the person to see what Silva would do with the information. Copies of all emails from the exchange (with internet headers intact) are now in my possession. (note: BSMW had nothing to do with the original emails, we learned about all this after the fact

I think the worst part of this story is the willingness of other media outlets to run with the story even thouugh their sole source is a biased blog whose sole source is a semi-anonymous e-mail. What the hell happened to responsible journalism? Checking your own facts, et cetera. I guess CN8, ESPN, and The Globe are past responsible journalism and are more interested in sensationalistic journalism.

Oh yeah, Boston Dirt Dogs, it isn't news when you have a headline about Mark Bellhorn's strikeouts. That stuff belongs in box scores. Photoshops are cute but the only time I've ever seen them printed in real newspapers is when the media outlet is trying to fake a story. They usually get heavily criticised once they get discovered. If BostonDirtDogs.com were a newspaper, it would be more childish and graphically orientated than the USA Today, and that's saying alot.

Wang Comes Up Big for Yanks

There are way too many jokes in my head right now. This game really wasn't all that special. I can't beleive people paid $1,500 to see Abe Alvarez face Wang. The Yankees didn't evne have their full team as they played a split squad game earlier in the day against Tampa. The Sox fall to 5-2 in spring training with a 3-2 record in the Grapefruit League. They're still 1-1 in the Mayor's Cup.

I really don't like the idea of Edgar Renteria batting 2nd as opposed to Mark Bellhorn. Bellhorn produced most of the season until he got injured. He put up his best career numbers and meanwhile, the players around him put up career numbers. Manny and Ortiz produced better than almost every other tandem of hitters in the history of baseball. Damon had an amazing year. I know Renteria is faster which means he can steal a few bases but he only took 17 last year as opposed to Bellhorn's 6. I don't think 11 extra bases (plus 10 more times getting caught) is worth taking out Bellhorn's prowess to get on base. The job of the 1 and 2 hitters in this lineup is to get on base for Manny and Ortiz who are capable of knocking them in from any base. I honestly don't think Renteria's ability to take 2nd base a few times (and get caught doing so a few times) is going to make up for his lack of on base percentage compared to Bellhorn.